Takraw Back in Effect

The takraw season fired off again in April this year. It's always nice to get in some extra kicking whenever I can. The spring tournament was supposed to be the other week, but was cancelled due to rain. Enjoy some of the photos I took last week.

Fav. Pictures of Mud Island Belt

Mud Island Belt 2010

Another tournament is passed on into the records books. The turnout included 5 world champions & numerous attendees from Oakland, Santa Cruz, Montreal, New Orleans, Portland, Chicago, Memphis, & yes even Nashville (a.k.a. me). So 15 doubles teams in all. although it would have been nice to get a 16th team to round out the pools, but we wound up with 5 pools instead. Only 16 people competed in singles out of 30 competitors.

Doubles
1. P.T. Lovern/ Emmanuel Bouchard

2. Johnny Leys/ Franki Pelletier

3. Jack Harris/ Jeremy Mirken

4. Kenny Shults/ Ken Hamric

5. Martin Cote/ Luc Legualt

Singles

1. Kenny Shults

2. Franki Pelletier

3. Luc Legualt

4. Martin Cote

5. Jermey Mirken

I partned up with mike "willi" williams from Memphis. We played well during the warm-up's on friday going 6-2 (mind you most of these games were against lower level teams). The sets were coming nice & easy, but the kills/spikes were just okay - a decent % were shanked or sided out. So by the time saturday rolls around & we discover our pool contains Manu/P.T. & Tommy C./Brad W. We played Manu/P.T. first of course!

I'm happy to report that neither of us served out for both games, the problem was getting possession. During the first game it was clear that Manu/P.T. were shaking the rust off, so I was disappointed to only get 2 points on the board. I didn't really struggle with either of their serves, I was dishing out good sets to Willi with plenty of time to reach the bag. Again it was the execution. It was a shanked spike or sloppy set that ruined it & never allowed us to find the groove. The second game went much quicker as the world champions got loose & started crushing away. Once again 2 points. It was frustrating because even though I could tell what spike they were about to use & the general direction of the shot... my feet couldn't keep up with my brain.

In the second match Willi & I played Tommy C./Brad W. It was nearly an identical loss, only we weren't playing world champions. My serves & returns/sets were fine. This may have been one of the few tournaments where I actually played at my level. We should have beat them at least one game. I think there's a lot to say for chemistry in footbag. I feel that I would be able to compete better at tournaments if I had a partner I was accustomed to playing with. The past 3-4 tournaments I've partnered up with someone that I rarely kick with. We actually had time to prepare prior to the tournament & didn't use it. If I ever intend to change my tournament performance, I need to be more prepared.

Kessler Turns 50!

We had a nice little birthday celebration for David over the weekend. 8 people turned out in all to get together for a little disc & footbag. It warmed up to 60 degrees over the weekend & that was all the reason I needed to go outside. Also we had 2 out-of-towners visiting, Dustin from Tullahoma & Willi from Memphis journeyed to Nashville for the special occasion. I spent some time fumbling around with my camera & finally found the motion capture function. It really helps to photograph action shots too. I've got tons of footbag pictures where I cannot find the bag, but I know it's there somewhere. Thanks for coming out people & I think we'll be seeing more of Dustin in the near future.

Nashville 2010

2009 clearly marked the rise of Andrew Coleman from a freestyler into a net player. Which leads me to ask the question who does 2010 belong to? Our attendance for the year thus far has been amazing, we've had 6-8 people at the last 4 sessions! Last year we were barely getting 4 people to a practice. Tommy, Justin, & Nikolai are showing up much more consistantly this year. All of them should break the novice barrier this year if they keep turning up. Nashville has 10 active players that know how to play net, but the challenge is still getting everyone to show up. So now that we have the numbers, all I need to do is discover where modivation comes from.